my word of honour to return to arrest after these sieges were
over, which I did and continued (prisoner) till his Grace the Duke of
Marlborough sent his repeated orders to make my escape, which I
disobeyed twice; but at last being encouraged by his promise to
recommend me to any prince that I pleased, for these were his words, I
went off, and procured his recommendation to the King of Prussia, from
whose service, which I may say is of the strictest, I came back to serve
in the Low Countries, where I continued until the end of the war, at
which time her Majesty Queen Anne having, as it is said, turned Tory,
vouchsafed me her pardon."

These marks of indulgence to Sinclair fell heavily upon the heart of him
who still mourned two promising brothers, sent to an untimely grave by
brutal revenge. The following letter from Sir John Schaw is beautifully
and touchingly expressed.[227] What effect it produced upon the great
but not faultless man to whom it was addressed, can only be known by the
impunity with which Sinclair, his hands being imbued in the blood of his
countrymen, continued in the Prussian army, and afterwards returned to
Scotland.

"It is with very great regrate that I give your Grace any further
trouble on account of the melancholy story of my two brothers, who
had the misfortune to be murthered in the space of three dayes by
Lieutenant Sinclair, then in the regiment of Prestoun, in the year
1708. Your Grace was at the paines to be informed of the whole case,
and the murtherer, being a man of quality, had many to intercede for
him; your justice did overcome all other considerations and indeed
nothing could be more worthie of the great character your Grace has,
and the glorious name you must leave to posterity, than the
punishment of so cruel and bloodie a fact; but the criminal escaped,
and the sentence of death pronounced by the court-martial, and
confirmed by your Grace, was not executed; and I, having done all I
could to bring the murtherer of my unfortunate brothers to condign
punishment, was satisfied to pursue him no further, tho' the
atrocity of the crime committed against the law of nations would
have affoarded me ground to have prosecuted him in any country where
he could have been found. But to my surprize and sorrow, I have of
late been informed that Lieutenant Sinclair has added to the
repeated murthers the impudence of retu